Celebrating World =
Wetlands=20
Day
February 1st marked World Wetlands =
Day, with=20
events run up and down the country - Here Mark Everard takes =
a brief=20
look at,
=93Water meadows: nostalgia and=20
sustainability=94
Water meadows may evoke a long-gone rural idyll, =
immortalised=20
by Thomas Hardy=92s novels and the paintings of John =
Constable, and=20
indeed few remain in operation today in the modern intensive =
agricultural landscape. Yet water meadows were once an =
advanced=20
technology widespread across much of southern England. They =
date=20
from around 1580, spreading rapidly and prevailing for over =
300=20
years before their precipitous decline in the 20th century. =
To=20
endure so long in a pre-industrial age, they may just hold =
clues=20
about sustainable land use.
Structure, function and =
operation
Water=20
meadows are quite distinct from other forms of wet =
grassland.=20
Engineered topography, weirs, channels, sluices and sloping =
=91panes=92=20
of grass enabled a management regime that maximised =
productivity.=20
The operation of water meadows required considerable skill =
from the=20
=91drowners=92 who used to tend them and control the flows, =
sequentially=20
flooding (or =91drowning=92) and draining the meadows =
throughout the=20
year to maximise early growth of grass and the production of =
hay and=20
summer grazing. The control of flows harnessed the warmth =
and=20
nutrient-bearing silt from river water, using it to irrigate =
and=20
control some weeds. This method of controlled water flow, =
critically=20
maintaining a thin film of moving and oxygenated water that =
is not=20
allowed to stand and waterlog the soil, distinguishes water =
meadows=20
from other forms of wet grassland.
The rise and decline of water =
meadows
One=20
of the prime benefits of water meadows was to overcome the =
so-called=20
=91hungry gap=92 in April, when winter feed had been eaten =
and the new=20
grass was yet to emerge. This was the principal limiting =
factor to=20
livestock production, the whole agricultural economy, and =
its=20
capacity to feed the population. Stock feeding on the hay =
and early=20
grazing provided by water meadows were often moved to the =
thinner=20
soils of surrounding Downs at night, their manure and faeces =
boosting production of cereal crops under the =91sheep-corn =
system=92.=20
Water meadows spread almost wherever appropriate catchment=20
topography and free-draining soils occurred, though their =
heartland=20
was throughout the chalk catchments of Wessex.
Their heyday was the mid-eighteenth and nineteenth =
centuries.=20
Thereafter, increasing mechanisation, chemically-intensive =
farming,=20
rising labour costs, international trade and the declining=20
contribution of agriculture to the British economy consigned =
them=20
rapidly and almost completely to history throughout the =
twentieth=20
century. Today, only a handful of water meadows remain in=20
operation.
Dr Mark Everard, Visiting Research Fellow, =
University=20
of the West of England
Dr Mark=20
Everard is the author of the new book Water Meadows: Living=20
Treasures in the English Landscape (2005, Forrest Text, =
Ceredigion).=20
The book explores water meadows from historic, economic, =
ecological=20
and heritage perspectives, charting their origins, function =
and=20
operation, decline and fall, but always from functional and=20
sustainability perspectives. It also provides case studies =
of=20
operational systems and abandoned systems, and is =
comprehensively=20
illustrated with both photographs and line =
drawings.
![3D""](3D"cid:002801c62b3b$7918a180$0800a8c0@Paviliona630n"=20) |
|
Sluice gate on head main at =
Lower=20
Woodford |